CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Ruairí Quinn
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"The Irish State is facing its biggest challenge since 1939"

So said Ruairí Quinn at an IIEA function marking the retirement of the Institute's current Director General, Tom Arnold.

Ruairí emphasised that the response to the earlier challenge had the advantage of a strong Taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, and an equally strong Minister for Supplies, Seán Lemass. Today the political situation is more diffuse.

The starkness of his example struck me forcibly: Dev kept us neutral in the face of serious imperial pressure to join the war, and Lemass kept us fed and alive in the face of extremely adverse circumstances.

And in case anyone jumps down my throat and says that's not how it was, I should point out that Ruairí's comment came at the end of the speeches and not at the beginning. But they made a big impression on me and it is something I took away with me from the evening.

Tom Arnold

Tom Arnold held the key position of Director General in the Institute during the recent restructuring of the board and he was much praised for how he handled that whole process. What he brought to the Institute was a set of diplomatic skills, a wealth of revelant experience and a vast network of contacts which have been of huge benefit to the Institute.

He made a gracious speech in the course of which he thanked everyone who helped him during his period of office, not forgetting the office and hospitality staff.

He is handing over at a time when the Institute was never more needed. Its research staff, analysts and writers will be expected to make a significant input into the Brexit process, in terms of critical analysis, policy advice and informing the public through firmly evidence-based events and publications. This is the sort of thing it has been doing since its foundation but current developments are seriously upping the ante.

Barry Andrews

Barry Andrews, who is taking over from Tom, made a short "acceptance" speech indicating that he had already been sussing out the territory and was ready to hit the ground running. His own excellent qualifications apart, he comes from a family with a long tradition of public service to the State.

I didn't get a chance to talk to him, but if I had I would have mentioned a minor, but significant, action by his father in procuring for me from the then Justice Minister, Brian Lenihan Snr, a certificate to import four banned books. I have referred to this elsewhere online.

Brendan Halligan

Brendan Halligan was the founder of the Institute in 1991 and has been its Chairman ever since up to the beginning of 2017 when he handed over to Ruairí Quinn. So with the recent revamping of the Board and change in the positions of Chairman and Director General, a re-envigorated Institute is ready to face what may be its biggest challenge yet.

Brendan made one particular comment which stayed with me. He was musing on how people are chosen for a position like DG in the institute. He had been searching for a word to describe the process and had finally come up with "emerged".

I was very taken with this as it implies a wide consensus on a tried and trusted candidate who will be up to the job. You wouldn't get away with that sort of a process in many areas of the public service which are now stitched into competitive interviews as a safeguard against jobbery, but you can see the benefits of the "emergence" approach in a job like this.

To mark the occasion Tom Arnold was presented with a copy of Carla King's biography of Michael Davitt, a book I will have to read myself at some stage.

Davitt was an amazing individual, founder of the Land League, courageous investigative journalist, hero of Jews as well as nationalists, a Mayo man who lived for a while in Ballybrack, and I could go on.

Below are a few of those in attendance. You can play your own guessing game. I only know who half of them are myself.

If you want to follow up on the Institute and its publications, including a very concise mini-briefing note on Brexit, you can go to the official website and wander round it.

THE OTHER ROGER CASEMENT

Roger Casement
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What other Roger Casement? Was there not only the one?

Well, yes and no.

We are currently commemorating the centenary of 1916 and Casement surfaces at that time for his attempts to mobilise a German sourced invasion of Ireland along with the importation of arms for the domestic rebels. His capture on arrival was followed by his trial and execution for treason. Enough, you might think, for a whole lifetime. But this was just at the end of Casement's career.

There is a whole other Casement which gets much less attention. It was not for nothing that he was knighted in 1911.

He had earlier exposed and documented the abominations practised against the natives of the Belgian Congo by King Leopold of Belgium. The king was extracting much valued rubber from the area and oppression and genocide of the natives didn't bother him. Casement's reports on the situation caused the Belgian state to deprive the king of the territories concerned which up to then had been his private possession. That job done Casement then reported on similar atrocities in Putumayo in the Peruvian Amazon Basin. Again the extraction of rubber but this time by a British registered company.

Raghnall Ó Floinn

This was what Casement was all about and it was this aspect of his life which was being commemorated in the exhibition launched today in the National Museum of Ireland in Kildare St.

The speakers were introduced by Raghnall Ó Floinn who has taken over from Pat Wallace as Director of the Museum. Raghnall gave some background to the museum and, hitting a theme which was taken up by some of the speakers, reminded us that the museum was not just a series of objects and collections. It was a vehicle for bringing people into contact with their past and this exhibition was an excellent illustration of this.

Catherine Heaney

If Raghnall is only three years into his stint as Director, Catherine Heaney is just one month into her role of chairing the Board. From what she said she has certainly jumped in the deep end having already been around the museum's many properties and also literally up the Amazon to where Casement reported from. She was very strong on the museum's outreach to the public. Collections were to be put to work to promote interest in our past and bring whole new contexts to people's attention.

Tom Arnold

Tom Arnold, current DG of the Irish Institute for European Affairs, and a former CEO of the NGO Concern Worldwide, gave us a context for Irish humanitarian action in the world, starting with St. Columbanus, moving through Daniel O'Connell and his opposition to slavery, then the church missionaries and finally through to today's three major Irish NGOs, Concern, Trócaire and GOAL. This is the timeline and continuity into which Casement fits and it is for his work in this area that he should be remembered.

Fiona Reilly

Fiona Reilly has curated this exhibition and when you hear her talk about it you know that it was not only a labour of love but an expression of a conviction that Casement's work has enormous relevance for us today as millions are still caught in slavery, and sweatshops and extractive industries, with all their cruelties, are by no means a thing of the past.

Casement's call still resonates and awaits an adequate response. He was the "Voice of the Voiceless".There are many voiceless out there today who not only need their voices heard but something done about their plight as a result.

The exhibition itself, while relatively small, is beautifully presented. It combines the stories of the oppressed, and Casement's work to give them voice, with some objects from their culture. A visit will surely stimulate you to go and read up some more and better understand the nature of this unfinished business.

Casement's State Funeral 1965

Casement was executed on this day in 1916 and it was to be 1965 before his remains were returned to Ireland for a state funeral to Glasnevin where he rests today.